June 10, 2005
Gun rights for black people
Reading the really terrific book 'Freakonomics', I was struck by this quote, by Ulysses S. Grant detailing the purpose of the Ku Klux Klan:
'By force and terror, to prevent all political action not in accord with the views of the members, to deprive colored citizens of the right to bear arms and of the right to a free ballot, to suppress the schools in which colored children were taught, and to the reduce the colored people to a condition closely allied to that of slavery'.
The right to bear arms was considered such a fundamental right for free black people that Grant mentions it first, before the right to vote or attend school. And now, in most urban centers where the population of black people is high (such as in DC or in NYC), guns are all but banned, with mostly criminals carrying them. How did we let it get this way?
Technorati Tags: Gun+rights Second+Amendment Ulysses+S+Grant Freakonomics
might have something to do with gun related deaths being the number 1 cause of death for young african-american males.
Posted by: dawn summers at June 10, 2005 03:48 PMLet me quote Mark W. Smith: "More children under five drown in water buckets than children under ten die from accidental gunshots. Is it time for water bucket control laws?"
Posted by: BronxPundit at June 10, 2005 04:39 PMCriminals get their guns in the black market--no matter how stringent regulations are.
Posted by: BronxPundit at June 10, 2005 04:41 PMIn middle America, larage numbers of evil, white, Christian, no-honest-days-work-doing Republicans own guns, legally. Yet they don't have the same problem as urban communities with their stringent gun control laws.
No correlation between gun ownership / possession and crime exists. The reason for the high level of violence in places like East Coco Beach lies elsewhere, in places Democrats refuse to look.
Posted by: Sean at June 10, 2005 05:05 PMI was struck by what Niger Innis said about liberal, institutionalized, socialist slavery as a replacement for whips and chains.
Posted by: Dorian Davis at June 10, 2005 08:10 PMmight have something to do with gun related deaths being the number 1 cause of death for young african-american males.
How many of those guns are legal?
I also love how two of my friends, Mark Smith and Niger Innis, were quoted in this comment section. Mark and Niger were in a debate many years ago that had a profound effect on my thoughts on guns. I used to be an unthinking 'guns are bad' kind of person, but that debate and subsequent reading, really changed my position.
Posted by: Karol at June 11, 2005 02:20 AMMaybe nowadays the KKK is leaving full water buckets around.
Guns aren't bad they are dangerous.
: "More children under five drown in water buckets than children "under ten die from accidental gunshots. Is it time for water bucket control laws?"
umm...yes. are you suggesting that if they could get child proof lids for buckets that we shouldn't?
BronxPundit,
frist dawn says this.
"might have something to do with gun related deaths being the number 1 cause of death for young african-american males. "
and you say this.
"Let me quote Mark W. Smith: "More children under five drown in water buckets than children under ten die from accidental gunshots. Is it time for water bucket control laws?""
Dawns comment and nothing to do with "accidental deaths". I had to do with hommicide.
And secondly Dawn is right.
http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus10.html
Of course if the innocent young black males were allowed to carry guns, i wonder how those numbers would change.
